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去年此时，Pantone将生机勃勃的草木绿定为2017年流行色，随之而来的是特朗普退出《巴黎协定》以及接踵而至的气象灾难。如今，他们又选择了70年代嬉皮士的代表色来代表2018年的时代精神。Pantone的流行色选得太过随便，完全不知所云。
测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：
decree [dɪ'kriː] vt. 判决，裁定
zeitgeist ['zaɪtgaɪst] n. 时代精神，时代思潮
jolly ['dʒɒli] adj. 愉快的，高兴的
conformity [kən'fɔːmɪtɪ] n. 一致，相似
arbitrary ['aːbɪtrəri] adj. 任意的，武断的
congregate ['kɒŋgrɪgeɪt]vi. 集合
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The future is “ultra violet”. Or, at least, that is what the Pantone Colour Institute has decreed: it is their colour of 2018. The concept of nominating a colour every year “connected with the zeitgeist” was dreamt up by the New Jersey-based manufacturers in 1999, and it has proven to be a jolly good wheeze. The decision is reached by a secret committee of advisers and consultants “who forecast global colour trends”, and is intended to help brands and businesses “leverage the power, psychology and emotion of colour” in their design strategy. It also helps to shift paint.
Quite how colour can be used to “leverage power” or as a “strategic asset”（which they also claim） is unclear. But one assumes the colour of the year is designed to encourage corporate bodies and institutions away from decorative schemes in Death Grey or Boardroom Bland, in favour of jazzier, bolder colours. Why not bathe your staff in Psychotic Cerulean or Migraine Yellow instead? Because colour is, you know, mood-enhancing and symbolic.
According to Pantone, ultra violet “symbolises experimentation and non-conformity, spurring individuals to imagine their unique mark on the world, and push boundaries through creative outlets”. It should not, of course, be confused with the eerily similar shade Blue Iris, which took the title in 2008.
Since the announcement last week, I've received a blizzard of emails from public relations companies promoting products in appropriately purple shades. Even the Queen is in on it. Shortly after the committee revealed its choice, she was photographed at a naval ceremony in Portsmouth wearing a vivid ultra violet coat and hat.
But the Pantone choices are so arbitrary as to be meaningless. Sometimes, they even seem cruel. Last year's selection, Greenery — symbolising “new beginnings”— was announced with the arrival of Trump in the White House and his subsequent withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. The year went on to see some of the most violent storms ever recorded and a terrifying California wildfire; it was many things, but green it was not. Surely, if these people had copped on to the zeitgeist, they would have made the colour of 2017 Bully Boy Blue or Netflix Red.
Now we have ultra violet, which seems equally out of touch. It's the colour of 1970s, hippie-tinged psychedeliA.Quite apart from anything else, I hate it. It's supposed to be deep and mystical — the Pantone people like its “cosmic” overtones — but it makes me think of wizards and wacky shed-dwelling craftspeople and the type of people with gnarly toenails who congregate at sunrise to take part in ancient ceremonies involving runic stones. It's the colour adored by “open-minded” people who move out of London to give their children better educational opportunities, and end up whittling nose whistles in Brighton.
Colours do have power. There's something quite magical about seeing a group of sports fans all massed on the terraces in their tribal stripes. And one only needed to see the sea of fuchsia pussycat hats gathered at the Women's Marches in January to witness the collective power of a single hue.
But the colour of the zeitgeist? It's probably Space Gray or Aerospace Aluminium — the colours of the iPhone 8. Fashion offers even fewer clues: for spring, the catwalks were a shimmer of silver and sequin, which suggests we're either off to live on Mars, or hitting the disco. The only colour that has really emerged as a phenomenon this year is Millennial Pink, a Barbie-lite shade which has become a shorthand for a sort of snowflakey femininity, and owes its origins to the Wes Anderson film The Grand Budapest Hotel released in 2014.
With this in mind, I've had a think about an alternative option that might suffice as a more fitting shade for the future. Maybe Arctic Melt, an ice-cap blue recalling the majesty of a fast-eroding glacier, or Coral Wash, a dazzling white as seen in the last, highly depressing episode of Blue Planet 2.Or what about Lonely, a contemplative shade of grey befitting the UK's attempt to negotiate its bloody awful Brexit. Too grim? I offer you Armageddon Sunset; it's a yellow-white bright, perfect for day rooms, which symbolises power, strength, warmth — and the certainty of human extinction.
请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：
A.Ultra violet.
B.Light purple.
C.Greenery.
D.Ultra green.
答案 (1)
A.Pantone is a New Jersey-based fashion company founded in 1999.
B.Pantone's Color of the Year summerizes fashion trends in the past year.
C.Pantone believes its color of 2018 symbolises new beginnings.
D.Pantone chose Blue Iris as its Color of the Year ten years ago.
答案 (2)
A.Because it is eerily similar to the color of 2008.
B.Because she believes Pantone failed to grasp future trends.
C.Because it is arbitrary and has nothing to do with zeitgeist.
D.Because it's the colour of 1970s, hippie-tinged psychedelia.
答案 (3)
A.Arctic Melt.
B.Millennial Pink.
C.Space Gray.
D.Armageddon Sunset.
答案 (4)
(1) 答案：A.Ultra violet.解释：未来是紫外光色的。或者，至少这是Pantone色彩研究所指定的2018年的颜色。
(2) 答案：D.Pantone chose Blue Iris as its Color of the Year ten years ago.解释：不要把紫外光色和与其很相似的蓝色鸢尾搞混。蓝色鸢尾是2008年的年度流行色。
(3) 答案：C.Because it is arbitrary and has nothing to do with zeitgeist.解释：但是Pantone的年度颜色选择过于武断以至于毫无意义。如今的紫外光色也同样不知所云。它是70年代的颜色，代表着嬉皮士式的迷幻。
(4) 答案：B.Millennial Pink.解释：今年唯一一个形成现象的颜色是千禧粉，一种代表了女性的颜色。